We didn't set out to start an au pair company. We found a way of family life that worked so well for us that we wanted to share it.
When we became parents, we knew we didn't want to give up the parts of our lives that mattered to us. We both wanted to continue building our careers, travelling, staying active, seeing our friends and experiencing the world, while also being present and involved parents and giving our daughter the kind of care and environment we wanted for her.
As a new mom, I found myself surrounded by other new moms, moms-to-be and moms who had been in the game for a few years, and childcare was a conversation that came up again and again. Finding great childcare is difficult. Finding it when both parents work, schedules change, travel is part of your life and you still want some room for yourselves can be even harder.
At the same time, we had started noticing something concerning about the childcare industry in America. Costs continue to rise, agencies continue to grow, yet the experience for families can still feel surprisingly impersonal. Screening can feel increasingly standardized, it isn't always clear what families are paying for, and from our own experience and conversations with other parents, we haven't necessarily seen a positive correlation between spending more on childcare and receiving better care.
That matters when you're talking about someone who is going to spend a significant amount of time with your child.
We decided to welcome a South African au pair into our family, and over time we couldn't help but notice how well the arrangement worked for the life we were trying to build.
Our family travels extensively, and since our daughter was born, we have travelled with her to five different countries (she's only 10 months old!). We had set ourselves some pretty ambitious goals for our first year as parents: we wanted to continue working, travel, maintain our friendships and relationship, stay active and, most importantly, enjoy this stage of our daughter's life rather than feel as though we were constantly trying to keep up with it.
Having our au pair has helped us do that, in tremendous amounts.
Of course, travelling with a baby still comes with challenges. Work is still busy. Plans change, babies have their own schedules, and some days simply don't go according to plan. But having another capable person with us who knows our daughter, understands our family and is genuinely happy to be part of what we're doing has made those challenges considerably easier to navigate.
When we travel, we aren't trying to find new childcare in every destination or handing our daughter over to someone she has never met. She has a familiar person with her who knows her personality and routines, and who is keen to get out, explore and enjoy the experience with us. That continuity has been incredibly valuable.
At home, it has meant that my husband and I have been able to give time to our work, our relationship, our friendships and ourselves while still having plenty of time together as a family. Looking back at what we hoped this year would look like when our daughter was born, our lives actually look remarkably close to it — and having the right childcare support has been a meaningful part of making that possible.
But what has probably stood out most to us is the quality of the relationship itself.
We didn't want someone who was simply supervising our daughter for a certain number of hours each day. We wanted her to be around people who engage with her, play with her, talk to her, teach her things and bring good energy into her everyday environment.
Our au pair has become part of that environment. She travels with us, joins us on adventures and genuinely enjoys spending time with our daughter. There is a consistency and familiarity to having her around that has worked extremely well for our family.
The relationship has also naturally become a two-way one. As host parents, we have found ourselves taking on a mentorship role with her. We want her to make the most of her time in America, to travel, meet people, build connections, learn from the experience and leave with a broader sense of what might be possible for her.
That made us start thinking about how many other young South Africans could thrive in families like ours; and how many American families could benefit from meeting them.
I am South African, so I know the culture and the kind of young people the country produces.
South Africans tend to be hardworking, warm, resilient and adaptable. There is a practical, get-stuck-in attitude that we value enormously, particularly in a family environment where things don't always run according to schedule. Many young South Africans are also well educated, motivated and incredibly keen to experience more of the world, meet new people and build opportunities for themselves.
Of course, nationality alone doesn't make someone a great au pair. Personality, maturity, experience, values and attitude all matter enormously, which is exactly why we care so much about getting to know the people we work with.
But we believe there is an exceptional pool of young South Africans who could bring something really positive to American families, while gaining an equally valuable experience themselves.
That exchange is an important part of what Global Au Pair is about.
A host family gains consistent childcare, greater flexibility and another positive influence in their children's lives. An au pair has the opportunity to spend a year abroad, experience a different culture, travel, meet people, earn, learn and grow, while hopefully becoming part of a family that takes a genuine interest in her future.
When that relationship is approached properly, it can be incredibly valuable for both sides.
There is also a practical reality to childcare in America: it has become extremely expensive.
In many major US markets, employing a full-time nanny can cost a family upwards of $60,000 a year, while the overall annual cost of hosting an au pair can be substantially less, depending on the program and the family.
For us, though, the comparison isn't simply about which option costs less. It's about what families receive for the money they are already spending on childcare.
If you travel regularly, having someone your child already knows can be enormously helpful. If both parents work, having childcare that fits more naturally into family life can make a real difference. And if you care about the people your children spend their time with, having another young, engaged and positive person in their world has a value that is difficult to reduce to an hourly rate.
An au pair won't be the right solution for every family. But for families like ours — families who travel, both work, enjoy active social lives, value flexibility and are also excited by the idea of mentoring and including a young person in their family — we think it can be a really good one.
That is why we created Global Au Pair.
We want to connect exceptional South African au pairs with American families who are looking for more than someone to simply clock in, supervise their children and clock out again.
Just as importantly, we want to know the people we are matching. We want to understand our host families: how they live, what they value, what their weeks actually look like and what kind of person is likely to fit naturally into their home. And we want to know our au pairs in the same way — their personalities, ambitions, experience, interests and what they hope to get from their year abroad.
Because ultimately, we don't think good matching should be about filling a vacancy. It should be about finding two sides whose expectations, personalities and lifestyles genuinely make sense together.
Our own experience has shown us how much easier family life can feel when you have the right support around you. We have still had the chaos, challenges and learning curves that come with becoming parents, but we have also been able to keep doing many of the things that make us feel like ourselves.
We've worked. We've travelled. We've spent time with friends. We've had adventures with our daughter. And we've been able to enjoy this year in much the way we hoped we would.
Our au pair has been an important part of making that possible.
We created Global Au Pair because we think more families — and more young South Africans — deserve the opportunity to find a match that works just as well for them.